01 December 2016

Slovakia bars Islam from becoming state religion by tightening church laws

The government in Slovakia has approved a law effectively preventing Islam being registered as a state religion for a number of years.

The bill was proposed by the Slovak National Party (SNS), and requires a religion to have at least 50,000 followers before it qualifies for state subsidies.

According to the most recent census, there are currently around 2,000 Muslim people living in Slovakia out of a population of 5.4million, and there are no registered mosques.

The law was approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament comprising both ruling and opposition parties, and a proposal to increase the threshold to 250,000 was blocked. [The Independent] Read more